Sell threshold

I talked before about a 'buy', or 'cost per wear threshold' as a criteria I use to decide whether or not I should buy something - my buy threshold is a cost per wear of $1.

So, how do I decide whether or not sell something? 

Sometimes it's very easy to let something go, especially when I'm getting the price I want for it, but what about the times when I know the price I can get for it, may not be worth letting go? Of course it's easy to reason that I should sell it because I'm not using it anyway, it will free up space for something that I love now, and something is better than nothing, but when you love bags as much as I do, it's hard. 

I went through this again on Sunday when sold my Coach Poppy Madras for $30. I originally listed it for $45 on Friday night, and decided that I wanted a quick sale instead of waiting it out. What made me decide to let it go for so low? I decided that for the period of time that it was in my possession, and how many times I used it, less the amount I will recoup from it, I was worth it.  

I purchased it in 2012 on sale for $79 (original price is $158) and during that time, I used it for a recorded 17 times since 2014 when I started to keep track. If I sell it for $30, then I 'bought' it for $49. The breakdown cost per wear of that is $2.88. For me to hit $1 cost per wear, I would have had to have used it 49 times; I know I haven't used it that much but definitely more than 17 times, so I calculated that my total cost per wear for this item is probably closer to under $2. Seeing it calculated like that helped me realize that I got good use out of the bag, and get over the emotional connection to the bag and I happily let it go. Now I'm one item less towards reaching one of my 2016 goals =)

 

How I track my purchases

I posted about this before when I first started my blog, but I just wanted to share again since I've been doing it for 2 full years now - this exercise really helps me be more aware of what I buy and now that I have a few years under my belt, can also look at the categories that require a bit more data, such as the condition of an item.

In 2013 I started to track my purchases and it was very simple, just handwritten in a notebook with the item description, price, and date. Then in 2014 I made an excel spreadsheet that I uploaded to Google drive so I can track anywhere (in case I go on vacation and make purchases), anytime. These are my categories: 

• Cost per wear - I've set up the excel to automatically calculate this for me; remember, my own threshold is $1 so before I buy something, I ask myself whether I think this item will meet that by the time I'm done using it (either worn out, or loss of interest)
• # used in year X - now that I'm on my third year, it's interesting to see what items I bought before, that I am still using and how often; helps to let me know what pieces are a staple that I may not have realized before, and  might keep in mind to replace again. 
• Description
• Designer - tells me what designer/brand fits me best for certain items
• Color
• Type - type of article, i.e. shoes, blouse, t-shirt, etc.
• Cost
• Condition (1 poor - 10 - excellent) - this one is more for future purposes so I can get an idea of the quality of the item over a course of time, and see if it's something worth buying again, or perhaps I should go with another brand
• Date of purchase - tells me how often I shop
• Place of purchase - tells me where I shop
• Regular price - tells me how much I'm saving, and just makes me question whether I would have purchased this same item at regular price

When the new year comes around, I just add a new sheet, and copy and paste these categories into it, and I add an additional column to the previous years and track how often I use them in the current year, and adjust the cost per wear formula.

This might seem excessive and probably, slightly, obsessive compulsive haha, but I find it helps remind me of my budget when I look at my quarterly spending to get a gage of how my yearly budget may be looking; tells me what items I may be buying too many of and should take note of before I buy another one (by tracking the type of item, I realize I go on small binges where I buy a lot of certain items - in 2014 it was khakis and button-up shirts, and in 2015 it was shoes); and each time I update how many times I've used an item, it makes me feel good to know I made a good purchasing decision and reminds me that I've come a long way from making random purchases.

How did I do with my wishlist?

To try to keep myself focused on purchasing the things that I was specifically looking for, I made a 2015 wish list of 'needs'. 

• leopard calf-hair bag or clutch
• find and stock up on good quality tights
• black wedge ankle boots
• a gray leather bag 
• gray wool winter coat
• leopard print, calf-hair belt
• gray jeans to replace my current pair - they are beginning to look in need of replacing and since they are a major staple in my wardrobe, I want to start looking early to find the 'perfect' pair
• navy sheath dress

How did I do? 

Well, the only things I actually bought were tights (it's also probably the closest thing to an actual 'need') and the leopard print, calf-hair belt. The belt has been an amazing addition to my wardrobe and I've already used it 9 times since I bought it in May, and with the fantastic price I got it for, its cost per wear is less than a $1. 

As for the other items - I either couldn't find the 'perfect' item, or realized that what I already owned was working great enough that I didn't feel I was missing anything, or changed my mind about them. I am really happy about this because it means I am being more thoughtful about my purchases, not compromising on exactly what I am looking for, and most importantly, I feel I am learning more about what I own and doing a much better job of utilizing everything.

• leopard calf-hair bag or clutch - I really want one, but with the help of some lovely ladies, I realize that if I were to get one, I'd probably be quite worried about carrying it in the weather we get; I also have a black and white, spotted, calf hair clutch and a crossbody that make for great substitutions, not to mention, found at complete steals!
• black wedge ankle boots - still haven't found the perfect pair and I am not willing to compromise on this. Also since, I want to pare down more on the number of shoes I own, I am happy to wait.
• a gray leather bag - still haven't found the perfect shade of gray
• gray wool winter coat - didn't come across the perfect one
• gray jeans to replace my current pair - I didn't actually wear my gray jeans that much this year, so they're still intact and can probably last another year or two.
• navy sheath dress - I've tried on several and none of them were the 'perfect' one.

Next year,  I think my 'needs' list is going to be a  bit different.

December, the month of reflection

I've been waiting for December 2015 to come along with great excitement! I have been diligently tracking my shopping purchases and trying to work within my wardrobe goals for 2 years, and can finally do a comparison between 2014 and 2015, and with 2 full years under my belt, feel I can finally get a better understanding of my budget and habits. 

Since I only started blogging towards the end of 2014, I'm going to go over 2014 in detail, and work my way up from there until the end of this year.

What I didn't do in 2014 was include my shoe purchases in my grand total of money spent, but I did keep track of them in a separate excel sheet specifically for shoes, so I was still able to determine what I spent on clothing that year. Unfortunately, I was't able to track the cost per wear for those shoes since I don't go into as much detail in their separate excel sheet as I do for my yearly budget sheet. (In 2015, I did include shoes into my full year's tracking.) 

My goal to purge and purchase better items had already begun in 2014 but I was mostly focused on purging rather than finding 'perfect pieces'. My purchases were less thought out in the 'wardrobe staple' department and more about filling in areas that needed replacing, or just things that I liked. The only well thought out pieces were my investment pieces.

In 2014, I didn't give myself a budget, but I also didn't go crazy - I would like to think I'm a pretty responsible shopper to being with, so not having a budget didn't affect me too much. In total, I spent $1028.78, for non-investment purchases, and $1,570 on 4 investment pieces (2 Burberry jackets/coats, and 2 Seiko watches), for a total of  $2,598.78. 

** For 2015, I made a conscious decision not to include any investment pieces into my regular wardrobe budget since they are intended to be long-lasting and very, very well thought out and calculated pieces. **

Spending $1,029 bought me a total of 33 items, including 4 pairs of shoes (including my ever so difficult to fit, knee-high boots), a winter coat that turned out to be one of my best purchases to-date (and an unexpected, very well-priced, investment piece), 3 items of gym wear, and an awesome black sheath dress. I also discovered that GAP boyfriend button-ups fit me very well and that I love their broken-in khakis, having bought 4 pairs. 

From those purchases, I have since donated 2 tops because I didn't like them any more, ended up wearing out my black sheath dress and a tunic, and ruined one of my favourite coloured khakis from a bleach accident (I've only recently bleached the entire pair of pants in an attempt to salvage them).

Since 2014, my cost per wear for each items has ended in single digits, with 6 items well under my $1 cost per wear threshold and approximately 10 items nearing that mark. The only item still in the double digits is my red Burberry quilted trench coat, but that was expected, and since I intend to have that for many, many years, am not too bothered by it.

Over all, my 2014 purchases helped me to: 

• find a great alternative to jeans by introducing me to khakis
• find a well-fitted button-up style
• finally find a pair of knee-high boots that fit me
• focus in on specific colors that are now my color palette of choice - gray, white/ivory, navy/blues, and black
• find an awesome cobalt wool coat that I absolutely love
• determine what kind of investment pieces I'm looking for and what areas of my wardrobe I'm willing to spend that kind of money on (coats, yes, definitely will lean towards paying investment prices; the watches were a one-time purchase and while they aren't in the price caliber as a Rolex, they meet my criteria of going with everything, are of solid quality, and are not pieces I intend to buy again until they break).

Not everything loved has to cost an arm and a leg

I am currently preparing myself to let go of two very beloved pieces from my wardrobe. They've both served me well and have helped to complete many outfits. While I generally feel OK with paying a little more for wardrobe staples in hopes they will last longer, it doesn't mean I don't appreciate the ones that I do find, at a low price point. That said, I wish these did cost more so that they would have had a chance to last me longer (I love good deals but there is some truth behind getting what you pay for).

First up, is my J. Crew tunic - I love this item because I have a  lot of trouble fitting into button-up tops. They are either too tight across the chest, too wide along the shoulder, or too loose or tight over-all. I was drawn to this because it fit throughout and because of the lack of buttons, it didn't have any parts prone to gaping open. From afar it looks OK. but upon closer inspection, you can tell that the material is slowly starting to pill and thin out, and the colors are starting to cross into each other; not to mention, at the cuffs, they have torn from the shirt - on both sides! Yes, I could sew them back in, but I'm not a master seamstress, and the cost to get it professionally done would probably cost more than the shirt itself. The cost of this shirt was USD $13.99, bought in December 2013 from the outlet store. I didn't get into a lot of detail in tracking my purchases until 2014 so I can't tell you the exact cost per wear, but I can tell you that I wore it enough times that my mom has told me that, that's all she sees me wearing. From memory, I can tell you I've worn it at least 5 times in the last couple of months, which for reference is already $2.80 per wear, and let's say I wore it a minimum of 5 times in 2014, that's already $1.40 per wear ... you see what I'm getting at.

 

Second on my list is one of my favourite dresses - my black sheath dress. I found this unexpectedly at Target in September 2014, originally CAD $29.99, on sale for CAD $14.99. It fit me perfectly and to my delight, even has pockets!! I was able to track my wear on this item and wore it 7 times in the remainder of 2014, and 12 times in 2015, to-date. My cost per wear on this is 79 cents! I love this dress but unfortunately the quality really isn't there - it is stretching out and attracting too much lint to de-lint and is pilling. I'm sad to let this go but I can't wear it to work having it look the way it does. In my opinion, with its pockets, this is the perfect style of a black sheath dress for me and doubt I will be able to find its replacement any time soon, if at all.

I love buying only favourites but it's really hard to let them go when the time comes because they were just that perfect for me. I've enjoyed wearing these pieces and will remember them fondly. Farewell.

Designer jeans - a thing of the past for me

Remember several years ago when you couldn't open a magazine without seeing an article about how much we 'had to own' a pair of designer jeans? ... I'm not going to lie, I got caught up in the hype too, and I'm going to confess... I didn't buy them because I personally thought that the quality and cuts were better; a younger and much less wiser me, bought them purely as status symbols and justified them as investment pieces. Looking back, jeans were something I should have saved my money on, and here's why - 

Weight change - this of course is not the jeans' fault, but now I'm left with 6 pairs of designer jeans that don't fit (thank goodness I was able to give 2 to my friend earlier this month). At my age now, I've accepted that my weight will fluctuate for better or for worse, and there's no way that I can confidently say that I will be able to fit into the same size jeans from month-to-month, let alone a solid year. (This is why I love bags). This leads me to my next reason - cost per wear.

Cost per wear - out of 365 days of the year, there are approximately 104 days (weekends) that I can choose to wear jeans; that's about 28% of the year. Throw in some business casual Fridays, stat holidays and vacation days, then counter that with days I wear something else, we may be looking at actually 15%, which is about 55 days. I currently own 10 pairs of designer jeans and at a rough average of $125/pair (bought on sale and regular price), we're possibly looking at a Burberry coat.

(side note: Burberry coats are currently my wardrobe 'exchange rate'). 

Now, only 4 of the 10 pairs fit me and are in rotation, and here's their cost per wear breakdown for one year: ($125 per pair x 4 pairs) / (365 x 0.15) = $9.13/wear. (Interesting fact: if I were to wear the same pair of jeans for an entire year, its cost per wear would be $2.29). As I mentioned before, my goal for cost per wear is $1 - $9 is not going to do!

Less expensive options - In the last 6 months, and most recently, in February, I purchased two pairs for approximately $24 and $15 (yes, at the GAP =P), and they have already paid for themselves! If they wear down or my weight changes, I have no problem letting them go.

Other pant options - I've recently fallen in love with cords for fall/winter and khakis for spring/summer. They're great alternatives to jeans, especially khakis when the weather just gets too hot. Last summer, I spent most of my time out of jeans. Moving forward I expect that I will be wearing these alternatives more often, further preventing my cost per wear from going down

So taking the above into account, designer jeans are no longer an item I'm willing to spend my money on as an 'investment piece.' I'll be sticking to more reasonably priced alternatives, or picking them up at major discount. 

A look back at my 2014 wardrobe resolutions

Last year I participated in a thread on thePurseForum about our 2014 wardrobe resolutions and the thread originator posed these questions to us - these were my answers and I wanted to share with you what I have achieved since then (updates in red). 

one: Write a short review of your style and the progress you made in 2013. How did your style, lifestyle and aesthetic preferences evolve?

In 2013 I took a really good look at my lifestyle and wardrobe, taking into account that I spend 4 days a week in professional attire, my closet consisted of too many neutrals but I still could not pull an outfit together; outside of work, I dressed like a university student holed up in a library cramming for finals (not a pretty sight).

To start my cleanse, I purged everything that didn't fit, items that looked and fit only so-so, poor materials, things that were very worn or faded, and got rid of accessories I know I would never use (i.e., fashion jewelry and trendy belts - not that I had that much to start with, but still, had to get rid of them). 

For work, I determined that sheath dresses worked really well for my body-type and it's SO easy to just throw on one item, rather than having to think about a top and bottom. For winter and fall I purchased a few more and implemented colors. For spring and summer I purchased more colorful pencil skirts and sleeveless tops and explored patterns. Realized that as much as I loved a dress shirt, I could never find one that fit just right, so I've given up for now. Now that I've implemented color and patterns, getting dressed seems so much easier. Also got a few pairs of dress pants on sale that filled in some staple pieces that were missing. 

For casual wear - I almost got rid of anything I couldn't pass off as business casual, save for a few hoodies, and pretty much left it at that. I didn't add more to my closet and am sticking to plain t-shirts, jeans, and my patterned sleeveless tops for now until I can figure out exactly what I'm going for. 

In 2014, my purchases seemed to focus on tops and bottoms that could all be worn on Fridays at the office and also weekends - immediately, my weekend wear improved ten-fold and I no longer wear hoodies as part of an outfit (unless I'm wearing them as part of an actual outfit involving a puffer vest) and reserve them for lounging around the house or quick errands. I also wear jeans a lot less and only purchased one pair to replace a few I let go of and now have 6 pairs of great variety in regular rotation - black, dark blue, red, gray, white, and a standard blue jean for the easy days. In spring and summer I have mostly replaced jeans with khakis.

You will note that I stated I had given up on the dress shirt but managed to find a perfect fitting one for me at the GAP - hurray! 

two: Write about one or two paragraphs about your style and wardrobe plans for 2014. Which aspects about your style and your wardrobe do you want to improve, why and how?

I'm pretty happy with my work wardrobe and am looking to decide on a few more items to let go, but that will be dependent on weight change in the new few months. For casual wear, I plan to continue to use what I have until it wears out and then I will begin to reinvest in that part of my lifestyle. I would like to continue to pare down my closet, especially my shoes, but my biggest goal is to make my accessories visible so I can try to implement them more into my outfits, and in turn, decide whether I should keep them or not. 

Since finding dress shirts that fit me, I feel that my work wardrobe is complete - I can finally put together looks that I loved but couldn't complete. As for my weekend wardrobe, I am achieving the 'preppie' look that I so love but just couldn't do until now. Now I am slowly wearing out what remaining hoodies I own as loungewear for the home and will unlikely be buying any more. I am slowly losing weight so I still have on hand the items that I'm on the fence about that were weight dependent - I'm hoping I will need them in a few months.

three: Express your five most important goals in a short, motivating sentence each and then start sketching out how you want to achieve or implement them. 

Sort of similar to #2 but I have started to track my clothing in addition to my bags, wallets, and shoes, and i'm hoping that will give me a better perspective on where my money goes when it comes to my clothes and what items give me more value, whether cost per wear, or how it holds up.

I did dutifully track my purchases in 2014 and can tell you the exact breakdown of my 43 wardrobe additions (bags not included). 

• 5 dress shirts (all from GAP)
• 2 button-up tunics (Jcrew and GAP)
• 2 cardigans (all from Banana Republic)
• 2 dresses (Banana Republic and Target)
• 1 headband (J Crew)
• 3 coats/jackets (Banana Republic and Burberry)
• 1 pair of jeans (GAP)
• 4 pairs of khakis (all from the GAP)
• 2 straight legged trousers (all from the GAP)
• 1 sleeveless top (Banana Republic)
• 1 sweatshirt (J Crew)
• 6 sweaters (Banana Republic and Olive Moon)
• 2 watches (all Seiko)
• 1 T-shirt (Pleione)
• 1 skirt (GAP)
• 1 pair of khaki shorts (DKNY)
• 3 articles of active wear (all Nike)
• 5 pairs of shoes (Zara, Cole Haan, Lauren by Ralph Lauren, Denim & Supply)

All these items (with the exception of what I bought at the end of December have been worn regularly and throughout the year and have all become my wardrobe staples. Their cost per wear is ridiculously low, and some have even paid themselves off because I got them at such great prices (for me, for something to have paid itself off, its cost per wear is $1 or less). 

Cost per wear

When I purchase something, I try to think of how often I will use it and if it seems like I will get enough use out of it, I buy it. Then I keep track of how many times I use it to see if it manages to 'pay itself off' and therefore worth its price, and worth having been purchased in the first place.

I track this through cost-per-wear and it's the price I paid, divided by how many times I use it. When do I consider something to be a good purchase? My cost-per-wear threshold is $1 per wear during its 'life span' (it might be different for everyone) - once I've used something enough to hit that target, I deem it a successful purchase!

This also tells me how long it takes me to use an item before it's worth it and through other factors (listed in my previous post about my tracking categories), tell me whether the value/quality of the item is holding up as it goes through the time it takes to meet my cost-per-wear.

The data also helps me see that I really don't need as much as I used to have because I really do only use very little of my wardrobe, constantly, and it helps me to buy less and thoroughly enjoy each item. 

My categories for tracking my way to my perfect closet

Part of the steps I am taking to perfect my closet is not just to minimize and find what works, but also to make sure my money is being spent well and determine the quality and value of my purchases.

I previously mentioned that I have been tracking this year's purchases in an excel sheet to give myself a better idea of what I'm buying. The categories I find the most helpful are: what type of items I'm buying, how much I'm spending, how often I'm wearing something (so I can tell if it will become wardrobe staple of mine, or fast fad), and cost-per-wear.

Below is the full list of categories I use: 

• Cost-per-wear - how much an item costs each time I use it (the more I use an item, its cost will go down which tells me I'm getting good use and value out of my item
• # of times used (in 2014) - the idea is that I will continue this in the years to come
• Description - just a summary of the item for reference
• Designer
• Color
• Type - i.e. sweater, shoe, dress, etc
• Cost of item - price I paid (versus original price - I try not to pay full price)
• Condition - I ranked it through 1-10 (10 being in excellent condition; this should change through wear and tear)
• Date of purchase
• Place of purchase
• Regular price - to see how much/if I'm saving